The Welsh and American Slavery

• Home
• More on the Series
• The Slave Trade
  • Whose ships were Used?
  • Who bought Slaves?
  • Captain Thomas Phillips
  • The Pwllheli Ship
  • The Second Middle Passage
  • The Slaves
  • Slave Owners
  • Abolitionists
  • Places to visit

The Slavetrade

Where were the slaves going?

Brazil	4,000,000
Spanish colonies (including Cuba)	2,500,000
Caribbean (Britain)	2,000,000
Caribbean (France)	1,600,000
British colonies in north America/USA	500,000
Caribbean (The Netherlands)	500,000
Caribbean (Denmark)	28,000

Although there were four million slaves in the USA by 1865, the population had grown by natural increase.

The sugar plantations of the Caribbean and South America depended more on male labour, so there was less of an opportunity for the population to grow naturally. In the USA, on the other hand, there was a demand for women to harvest cotton.

It was accepted in the sugar plantations that the slaves would die young due to the nature of the work, and that new slaves would have to be imported to replace them.

Slavery continued in Cuba until 1886 and in Brazil until 1888.